Panel Ten
by Shamisen
Summary: They're unknown, unloved and underappreciated. The minor characters of Naruto...their stories finally revealed. Chapter 1: Nii Yugito


**Panel Ten**

1. Nii Yugito: Shamisen

She was 12 years old when she first heard the shamisen.

Looking for her sensei, Yugito walked over to the large apartment complex that housed her mentor. Knocking on his door, she waited for a reply, but found none.

_Maybe he's off training._

She made her way out of the building when she heard a melody coming from the roof of the building. Climbing up the long staircase, she found her sensei, sitting cross-legged on the roof, a shamisen on his lap.

As soon as she arrived, the music stopped.

"Do you need something, Yugito?" her sensei asked, looking at her.

"You play the shamisen?" she asked.

"I'm not very good at it, but it's something I enjoy. Would you like to listen?"

Sitting beside her sensei, Yugito sat and listened to the music that emanated from the instrument.

When it stopped, her sensei looked at her.

"Well? How was it?" he inquired.

Yugito couldn't lie to him, "It was really beautiful, but it's not my type of music."

Her sensei laughed, "You can't please everybody. Now, did you want something, or what?"

Two years later, her sensei died on a mission.

Written in his will, he allowed his three prized students to take one of his personal belongings.

Tatami took his unique curved sword, keeping it on the wall of his bedroom.

Washimaru took his painting of the village. Their sensei had no artistic skill _whatsoever_, except for playing the shamisen, and the painting looked more abstract than a portrait, but he was proud of it.

Yugito took a small book from his bookshelf. She knew it was her sensei's favourite, a story written by one of the Great Sannin that was _not_ pornographic, much to her surprise. As she left his now-deserted apartment, something caught her eye.

A shamisen.

She didn't know what came over her, but she dropped the book and took the instrument, delicately holding it as if it would break any second.

It took her ten years to learn how to play it.

It wasn't that she didn't want to learn how to play it; it was just that she didn't have time to learn. Eventually, she mastered the stubborn instrument, and actually enjoyed playing it and listening to the music that she made. She took great lengths to keep it at its best; polishing it, tuning it, changing the strings every few months, all to keep her sensei's last legacy alive.

When she wasn't away on missions, or honing her already excellent ninja abilities, she found herself on her roof, the stringed instrument on her lap, strumming the melody that she heard that day so long ago.

"Sensei, what are you doing?"

She turned to see her student, Susuki, standing by the door.

Yugito almost laughed at the similarity.

"Just playing my shamisen."

"You play an instrument?" Susuki asked, wide eyed, "That's a surprise."

"What? I can't be artistic once in a while?"

"It depends. Are you good?"

"Why don't you find out for yourself?"

With Susuki playing critic, Yugito began to strum the instrument, her fingers dancing over the strings as the music filled the air. When she finished, she looked at her student, whose eyes were wide in captivation.

"You did _that_?" she asked.

"Give me some credit. I do have some musical abilities."

"How long did it take you to get that good?"

Yugito shrugged casually, "Oh, ten years, give or take a few months."

"_Ten years?! _I don't think I have enough patience for that!"

Five years later, Yugito found herself hanging from a wall by her hands.

If she did survive this, there was no way she would be playing shamisen anymore. That said, she probably didn't have a high chance of surviving anyway. Good thing she already had a will written out.

When news spread about Yugito's death, no one was more devastated than Susuki. How could her sensei be dead? She was like an older sister to her, kind, caring and funny.

It wouldn't be the same.

Susuki found herself in front of her sensei's house with her two teammates, Tetsugaku and Karashi.

"Sensei's will said that we're allowed to take one personal item," Karashi said.

The three entered the house.

Tetsugaku went for a scroll on the shelf. On occasion, the three of them would come over and eat at their sensei's house, and she'd always make the best cheesecake. He took the recipe with him.

Karashi eyed familiar movies on the coffee table. _Casablanca, Akira, Spirited Away, _and was that _The Godfather_? He smiled at his sensei's impeccable taste in film.

Susuki found herself in the bedroom. She really shouldn't be there, but she knew that her sensei had a really nice pair of red pumps that she just _had_ to have. Thank goodness they had the same shoe size.

As the three gathered at the door, a single memento of their sensei in their hands, Susuki's gaze fell on a familiar instrument leaning on the bookshelf.

A shamisen.

"Come on, let's go," Karashi said.

Looking at the instrument, then at the shoes in her hands, Susuki sighed.

"Wait, I changed my mind."

Placing the shoes on the floor, she went over and picked up the instrument. It was light on her hands.

"Sensei had a shamisen?" Tetsugaku asked in astonishment.

"Yeah. I've heard her. She's amazing." Susuki replied.

"Are you going to play it?"

A smile tugged at the corners of Susuki's lips. "Maybe, in ten years…"

* * *

**Panel Ten**

Author's Note

So, this is my new story, Panel Ten. I'm not sure about you guys, but the only thing keeping me intersested in Naruto are the minor characters with a lifespan of about ten panels. I decided that they needed some love, so I began writing short one-shots about them.

Any ninja from Kumogakure is automatically awesome in my book, but Yugito probably takes the cake. I don't know why, but she was such an amazing character, even though she only showed up for two chapters or so. I read the Third Naruto Databook and it said that her hobby was playing the shamisen. I thought, _"Well, okay...how did that happen?"_ and this was born.

Please R&R

**Next Chapter: Mizukage**


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